It’s going to be 100 per cent smoke-free for all three St. Lawrence College campuses — Kingston, Brockville and Cornwall — beginning this coming Monday.

“This is an important decision,” Glenn Vollebregt, president and CEO of St. Lawrence College, said as the college announced the policy update on Tuesday. “The risks and negative health impacts of second-hand smoke are well known. We are excited to unite as a college in having a healthy environment where we all learn, work, and connect.”

The new policy applies to the footprint of all three campuses, including all indoor and outdoor areas and in vehicles in the parking lots, which means that anyone who wants to grab a smoke or vape tobacco or cannabis will have to leave the school campus before lighting up.

“The added complexity of the upcoming legalization of recreational cannabis was also a factor, and we wanted to communicate this, in advance of harsher weather coming, to help people who choose to smoke to adjust,” Vollebregt said. “There will be no smoking on the college property.”

The federal government’s Cannabis Act, which sees changes to the legalization of recreational cannabis use in Canada, will be legal as of next Wednesday.

The policy will apply to students, staff and faculty, as well as all visitors to the campuses.

“We’ve always been in consultation with all of our local public health units,” Vollebregt said. “This is an issue that we have been thinking about [implementing] for some time. I think the risks and negative health impacts of second-hand smoke are well known, so we’ve made the decision to go smoke-free and provide a healthier environment for our students, faculty and staff.”

The new policy will be enforced by campus security.

“We recognize that with any policy change, it’s an education process and that’s how we do all of our policy implementations, and this will be no different,” Vollebregt said. “We’re an academic institution and we’re going to use an educational approach for this, so we want to make sure that we provide resources for faculty, students and staff.”

All the signs will be changing as all three of St. Lawrence College campuses, Kingston, Brockville and Cornwall, will be 100% smoke free starting Monday, Oct. 15.JULIA MCKAY/The Whig-Standard

The SLC smoke-free policy will not apply to any events or ceremony that include traditional burning of substances that form a part of Indigenous culture and heritage.

The college has listed a number of resources for anyone looking to quit smoking, including online tools, public health programs, and smokers’ helplines.

According to its website, the policy on smoking at Queen’s University is currently under review.

For more information about St. Lawrence’s policy, email smokefree@sl.on.ca or go online to www.stlawrencecollege.ca/SmokeFree.